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An anonymous reader writes "PC Magazine reports that even while Amazon was building their Kindle Fire tablet, it was already planning on a much larger model that 'will be its marquee product and the hopeful cornerstone of its tablet strategy.' Amazon's already begun offering $30 discounts on refurbished 7-inch Kindle Fire tablets, matching last week's new aggressive pricing from Barnes and Noble on their color touchscreen Nook. But PCMag argues that the 7-inch color Kindle was simply a 'beta' release of the larger device to come. 'In no way was Amazon being dishonest with its customers... To be truly fair, many people may never want a screen larger than seven inches because of the associated weight and bulk.' But the author argues that its real purpose may have been as a test run to gather important real-world data for their ultimate war with the iPad. 'After all, as industry insiders joke, all first-generation products, whether hardware or software, are really "beta" programs disguised as initial launches.'"

That's the problem with trying to become the new leader by being a really good follower.

Lovely phrase... you may remember what people said about Japan and their electronics some decades ago, and more recently to Chinese companies dedicated to follow until they get the edge to cut you back. Don't take it for granted.

Yes, Amazon is most certainly not a follower. I also consider them to be the most honest internet company. Unlike Google, they don't really need to do personally invasive data mining, because they know exactly what you actually buy on Amazon marketplace. The only thing that comes close to advertising from Amazon is product suggestions based upon what you have previously bought. Far more useful and less intrusive than fake drug ads.

Also, Amazon Web Services is absolutely unmatched. It shocks me that Google has missed the boat so severely in that market, but I guess they were too focused on forcing you to use the cloud through their own services to see the potential of letting people inovate with the underlying technologies.

The first Kindle came out three years before the first ipad, and while the ipad is obviously far more advanced, both devices are simply following the general trend of portable electronics that has been going for two decades.